Caspian ministers confirm commitment to common principles - Lavrov

MOSCOW, April 22./ITAR-TASS/. Foreign ministers of five Caspian littoral countries - Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - have coordinated more principles that will provide the basis for the Convention on the Caspian Sea legal status, Russia’s top diplomat has said.

“These are the delimitation of maritime spaces and measures to save the population of sturgeons as an endangered species,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a ministerial conference on Tuesday.

“The ministers have confirmed the commitment to the principles of equality and joint interests,” he said.

“We had no plans to complete the work on the Convention by the summit in Astrakhan. Several documents, including a document on key principles for the Convention on the Caspian Sea legal status, will be ready for the summit,” Lavrov said.